Search Party

★★★★★- Wow. What an insane show. I felt it kept getting better and peaked with Cole Escola. Then the last season was way too much with a BA-NAN-As ending. I loved it. Also, a great contemporary New York City show, like Broad City.

The overall gist... is sort of impossible to explain. Focusing on the first season, Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat), whose life is in a rut, throws herself into trying to find an acquaintance from college who has gone missing. Her horrible friends--weeny boyfriend Drew Gardner (John Reynolds [whom people say I look like but I don't see]), flamboyant serial liar Elliott Goss (John Early, sort of a millennial that guy), and vapid actress (Meredith Hagner)--rightly think she is losing it. This ultimately leads to the literal end of the world. The missing girl, who, spoiler, shows back up, one Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty), is hilariously dumb. 

The second season focuses on trying to cover up various deaths they have caused while the third season is a trial for one of those deaths. Louis Anderson hilariously plays the defense attorney in this season. He's great. 

The fourth season is where shit veers hard with Chip Wreck, a psychoticaly obsessed man played by Cole Escola, kidnapping and brainwashing Dory. Susan Sarandon shows up in this season as an insane presence in Chip's life. She's perfect. 

The last season is where shit goes to crazytown. Dory is a cult leader funded by a Big Tech Pharma company. Her disciples are the aforementioned friends and a group of social media influencer brought together by their patron, a billionaire tech mogulTunnel Quinn played by Jeff Goldblum. Dory and the team are attempting to achieve transcendental enlightenment through a pill. It is a complete disaster. 

Couldn't recommend it more. The first couple of episodes were meh. If you get through those, it really pays off. It shan't disappoint. Five stars. 

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is the worst movie of all time

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. "Shut up, John Big-booty, you coward. You are the weakest individual I ever know." What a weird movie. This was one of an ex-girlfriend's favorite movies. Here, 15 years after we broke up, I've finally got around to watching it. 

Gist is that a world-famous crime-fighting brain surgeon, rock star, adventurer test pilot and his team  must stop evil inter-dimensional aliens called the Red Lectroids (basically lizard people) set on infiltrating American society to conquer the world. 

Released in 1984 the flick was produced and directed by W. D. Richter, who directed one other movie, Late for Dinner, which I have seen. It's about two young men running from the law who get accidentally cryogenically frozen in the early 1960s before waking in the 1990s. Drama ensues. It is fucking terrible. He also wrote the screenplay for Big Trouble in Little China, the John Carpenter flick. Anyway, back to Buckaroo Banzai. It stars Peter Weller (the robocop in Robocop) in the title role. Also in the film are Ellen Barkin (This Boy's Life), Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow (who looks like the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow), and Christopher Lloyd also playing major parts. 

Lot of that guy actors, most notably John Lacey who plays the POTUS. He was Toht, the disgusting Nazi guy whose face melted in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. He is completely unrecognizable. Others include Clancy Brown (most people think of him as the asshole guard in The Shawshank Redemption), Dan Hedaya (Nick Tortelli from Cheers), and Vincent Schiavelli (who was famous for being weird-looking), among others.

I know the movie sounds fun, but it's all over the goddamn place. However, there is some charm in that and it has a crazy cult following. It has its moments, but its not my cup of tea. Perhaps if I was more into sci-fi.